Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Banana Date Bread

I am always looking for ways to make tasty baked goods with less sugar - this recipe is my greatest success yet! This bread relies solely on fruit, bananas and dates, for sweetness. Alfred has a BIG sweet tooth and he didn't miss the sugar at all! So, this is one treat you can feel good about serving yourself and your loved ones!

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil and flour your loaf pan so the bread will not stick. 2) In a large mixing bowl, combine the vanilla/rum, oil, hot water, and dates. Set aside.3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. 4) Use a fork to gently mash the date mixture then mix in the bananas and egg. 5) Stir together the wet and dry ingredients until just combined.6) Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top.7) Bake the bread in the center of your oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on a rack or a plate.

Greetings Daphne :)! We buy quite a lot of bananas each week - and most weeks we end up with 1 or 2 that get too ripe before we can eat them. If I don't want to make banana bread right away I just peel the over ripe fruit and freeze it. Then I have a stash of banana bread bananas handy all the time :). I agree it is one of those yummy comforting treats that's good just about anytime!

I hadn't eaten a date in any form for years, maybe decades until, we bake bread with dates in them, in one of my baking groups. I found out, they are sweet and luscious and can only improve any recipe.

Sweet and Savory - Dates are one of my favorite natural sweetners, they are great combined with finely chopped nuts as a tart crust, great in my morning oatmeal, and make a great filling for cinnamon rolls! My hubby loves to snack on them with walnuts and hot tea - it is very popular in his native Persia.

Mom's Crazy Cooking - thanks for dropping by and for letting me know about the link-up I headed right over to link up my pumpkin soup recipe!

This was delicious! I have been looking for things to bake with no sugar or butter, and am so pleased with how this turned out. Not sure how you meant to lightly flour the pan (came out a little chalky on the bottom). Maybe I'll just stick with oil only next time. But thanks for the great recipe!! I will absolutely make this again

About Me

We love to cook, love to eat, and love to read, write and talk about cooking and eating! In short, we live for food. On this blog you'll find simple, healthy (usually), tasty (hopefully) recipes from our tiny kitchen!